 Oh, excuse me? Hello. So today, as you can probably tell by the title, we are going to London and I'm gonna try and make it to as many kind of independent bookstores in London as I can. I mean, I realized that it really has been years since I've shopped in a lot of independent bookstores. I tend to shop in secondhand independent bookstores but not full price independent bookstores. And I just felt like if we can't afford to do it and monetarily we should stop buying our books on Amazon and just go some independent bookstores. So this is my Christmas present from Tom and we're gonna be going to two of my favorite restaurants as well. Oh my God, I'm so excited. I'm gonna take you along with me and I'm gonna try and buy a book at every independent shop we go to but like I'm only gonna get one if I want one. I'm not gonna just like spend money if there's no book that I'm like super desperate for. So we're gonna try and find a book I want at every independent book store we go to and we're gonna try and get around to as many as we can. Without further ado, let's just get into the video because I'm sure we don't care about this. We're not in London. Let's go to London. Okay, bye. The word is our first bookstore and this was the first ever and still only LGBT bookstore in the UK. And when I asked on Twitter which independent bookstores in London I should go to this is the one that everyone said. So I'm here. Gaze The Word was filled with so many amazing books and it had such great variety. It had Young Adult, more literary fiction, poetry, graphic novels and so much more. There were so many books from my wish list in there that it was really, really tough to choose which one to buy. So I picked up The Prince and the Dressmaker which is a graphic novel. I've had so many people talk about this and I may be doing a graphic novel video soon in the new year. So yeah, I was really happy that I found this because I was worried I wouldn't find books like this that I wanted so I'm very happy. So next we're at Scoob Books which is this, go to the sign over there. Yeah, lovely. Well it just says books. That's why it's called Scoob. It's books. That's it. Cut the cameras. Dada. That's intelligent. I just thought it's Scoob for Scooby-Dee. I'm disappointed. Which is a second hand book store so we're gonna see if we can get any steals. Scoob Books had literally every genre and type of book you could possibly think of. History, philosophy, politics, spirituality, travel and then just normal fiction as well. It had literally everything. They had these great penguin classics with the original orange covers. I just want to take the whole bookshelf home but alas, I couldn't. It just felt like a complete treasure trove of books that you could just spend hours getting lost in. So if you're in the area, it's just by around the corner from Gaines the Word, then I would definitely check it out. Excuse me? So we just went in there and I got down and out in Paris and London by George Orwell which is kind of an account of him being really poor in Paris and London and also like the experiences of other people who witnessed there. I've been wanting to read more George Orwell for like forever. I've only read Animal Farm on 934 so I thought that another one of his I should pick up and then Tom picked up a book. Do you want to tell him about it? A history of Anglo-Soviet relations. That took me a second. Yeah, it's really boring. It's boring. Nothing. It's just for uni stuff like about trade deals and negotiating, going from enemies in the Russian Civil War to being friends. Well, friends loosely. Cool. OK, I don't know where we're going next, so we've got to decide. OK, bye. Football, Tom? Oh, shit, what up? Hang on. I'm going to zoom for the squad. Wow. No, your face is enormous. Can you do your thumb now? No way. So now we're at the Persephone Bookshop which reprints neglected fiction and non-fiction from 20th century women authors so that we can read books which we otherwise wouldn't have been able to read. So hopefully I will find a hidden gem. Persephone Books was probably my favourite store I visited just because the atmosphere in there was so lovely and cosy. I loved all the matching editions and it just felt like such a welcoming environment. They had some really great and helpful descriptions underneath each book so you could just quickly tell what they were about and I just love the idea of what they're doing there. Wasn't that your favourite one we've been in so far? Would you agree, Thomas? It was pretty special. It was pretty cool. I like the colour choice. Yeah, I really like... I'll show you one of the covers. So most of them are like this. So this one I got, I think, is about a woman who's in prison during the Suffer Jet movement, right? I'm pretty sure. And it sounds really interesting. So they have... It details the life of what living in a... Woman's prison. Back then, yeah. I'll change the colour just so I can see it a bit clearer. Okay. And so then most of the editions are like this square on the outside and then they all have like a printed inside like this. Ta-da! Cool. And then come back up to me. And then the other one I got was Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day, which Tom picked out, really. You've already wanted to get this one, but it sounds super interesting. And I think it's basically about how her life is really similar, right? Until like this one day, which the book is the whole day. She's like her nanny or something. Oh, you know more about the book than I do. She just has a really fun life and stuff. Oh, so she lives it up. She goes... In one day, she starts to live it up. Okay, cool. So they were my choices for that. I think if you're in London, you should definitely pop into this one because I think it's really like a really unique bookshop, I think. So we've just stopped to film in front of this, which looks so pretty. Is it like an advent calendar type of thing? And it looks so cute, right? We were next door at... Oh! We were next door at Hatchards, which is the oldest bookshop in London. So I was so excited to go to it. And then you walk in and it's basically just a Waterstones because they're owned by Waterstones now. And so it kind of felt a bit disappointing. It felt like the whole pointless was to go to independent bookstores that are a bit different. And it just felt like the same old, same old, other than the floors being a bit old. So yeah, I didn't buy anything in there and we were kind of a little bit disappointed. But now we're gonna go... Oh! But now we're gonna go to Gosh Comics. So hopefully that'll be more successful, so we'll see you there. So now we're at Gosh Comics, where they do graphic novels, manga, zines. And as evident by my earlier purchase, I wanna get more into graphic novels. Hopefully I can find a really good one here. I already have one in mind that I almost bought at the first shop. So we shall see. So in Gosh Comics, there was literally everything you could possibly imagine would be there. It was really, really incredible and it gave me so many ideas for things I wanna get in the future. There's so many things I wanna add to my wish list now because of it. And look at these Naruto editions. I've only like 20 episodes in. But yeah, they still look really cool in part of me. The catalyst home in me still wants them, so. Yeah, but it was really, really an amazing shop and so unique. Okay, I picked up Laura Jean keeps breaking up with me, which I almost got a gaze at the word, but I thought, I reckon, gosh, we'll have it, so I'll wait. So yeah, I've heard really great things about this, particularly from Ariel Basette, has read it. Particularly from Ariel Basette, who read it during the reading rush and said she really enjoyed it. And I really like the art design in it. So one thing I really like about this is the use of just pink, black and white and gray. And I think it's really unique. So I think it's a really beautiful graphic novel, so I'm really excited to give it a read. So that was our pick for gosh comics, oh hey. So now we're at Daunt Books, which may be the last one of the night. I don't know if we're gonna fit anymore in, but I've always wanted to come here. I've seen so many of the events they've done, like on Twitter and stuff, and I've always thought, ah, I should wish I was there, but now I am. So I'm excited to go in. I've heard someone tell me on Twitter that their books are arranged by location, like destination, like, do you know what I mean? Like, where the book is set. They're arranged in that way, in part of the room, so I'm excited to go and explore that. And yeah, let's go have a look. Although I didn't end up buying anything in Daunt Books just because there was nothing really that grabbed my attention, it felt like such a magical place, particularly in that big hall. As you enter to the right, it was really, really just amazing. And I don't think camera really captured it as well as it came across in person. It was just amazing. So it's definitely one of the most atmospheric bookstores that I've been in recently. So if that's what you're looking for, I would really go check it out. And then we just wandered around London for a little bit and finished night off at my favorite restaurant, Nobu. And I haven't been there for like five years, so it was really great to visit again. Hello. So I'm sitting here to try out the fact that my bed isn't made because I don't want to move them. I want to move you. I want to move you. Yeah, I thought I would just recap really quickly what I picked up. So at Gaze the Word, I picked up The Prince and the Dressmaker, which is a graphic novel. So I think this is essentially about a prince and a dresser. I'm not speaking from experience. I just want to hear say, but yes. But isn't it, doesn't he want to wear dresses, isn't it? The prince wants to wear dresses? Am I right? I think I'm right. So the artwork in it looks so cute. You know what you think? I just can't wait to read it. I'm really, really excited to give this a read. When I saw it in there, I was like, yeah. Okay, we're getting that. So next is Scoob Books. I got Down and Out in Paris in London by George Orwell. I just, oh my God, what are you doing? I always want to read more George Orwell as I said, I think in the clip. And yeah, I just don't feel like I read enough of his stuff. So when I saw this, I just thought I'd pick it up. It's nice and short. And like, it was a second hand bookstore and still in very good condition. So Goodreads says this unusual fictional memoir in good part autobiographical, narrates without self-pity and often with humor the adventures of a penniless British writer among the down and outs of two great cities. It's essentially about going in, like living in lodging houses and seeing the people who live on the streets where you're really poor. And I think it's just like a look at poverty. It's the one I've heard people talk about loads. So I'm excited to pick it up and see what I make of it. And it's short, so I feel like it's quite accessible. So then next we went into Persephone Books, which I have to say, I think was my favorite bookstore out of all of them. I really, really loved it in there. I thought just the vibes in there, they had music playing, like incense on. And I just love the design of all of their books. And I shot the idea of it. So if you are in London, I would really, and you can only go to one bookstore. I think that this is a really unique bookstore. You're not really going to find anything like it wherever you're from. So I really, really recommend going to this one. So I got two here, because I kind of felt like other bookstores, I can just get those books another time, but these books are like so unique to this location. So I thought I'd get two. The first one I got was the one that's like typically in their style, this kind of gray cover. And that is No Surrender by Constance Maud. All the Goodreads tells me is that No Surrender describes minor aristocrats and male girls as they struggle together as part of the suffrage movement, which is really interesting. It's only got 126 ratings on Goodreads. So like barely anyone has read this. So I don't know, I'm just super excited to pick it up. It sounds super, super interesting. The little blurb they've got sounds so interesting. And I love how for all of the books, they all have these like different designs on the inside. And you can buy like, sorry, I've got two bookmarks here. You can buy the bookmark that matches that. So I think it's just a nice touch they've got going on. And then the next one I picked up was Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson. Goodreads says this one, Miss Pettigrew and approaching middle-aged governess was accustomed to a household of unruly English children. When her employment agency, Sins, said to the wrong address, her life takes an unexpected turn. The alluring nightclub singer, Delisa Lafoss, becomes her new employer. And Miss Pettigrew encounters a kind of glamour she had only met before at the movies. Over the course of a single day, both women are changed forever. Now this is one that Tom really wanted me to get. He was like, I think it sounds so interesting, you know, how it only happens over one day. I think it will be, I think it'll be such a fun, yeah, such a fun idea. So I mainly got this because he really liked the sound of it. And he was being so supportive. I was like, okay. And he's buying them for me anyways. But yeah, it's really short. I think it's only just over, it's like 230 pages, but it has got some illustrations, not loads, but it's just got some pages where there's like these little lines drawing illustrations. And then the last book I got was Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me, which is another graphic novel. Again, oh my God, I love the artwork of this one, how it's all just black, gray, white, and like the like peachy pink salmon color. I just love it. I just love the design of this one. So this is I believe about a girl who is dating Laura Dean and Laura Dean is kind of like a really, really bad girlfriend, quite manipulative, and it's just a really bad relationship I think. So yeah, I just, I'm excited to read it and it just, it's everyone I've heard has given it a really, really great review. So I just felt like it was something that I had to pick up. So yeah, if you had told me when I went out that I'd only be buying classics, oh, I'd only be buying classics and graphic novels, I would not believe you because I've never read a graphic novel and I barely read classics. So I thought I'd become really into fantasy, you know, but I ended up getting kind of books which I wouldn't otherwise have got if that makes sense, which for me is really great, you know, like the books that you're gonna get, and I feel like with something like this, it's fun to kind of go and discover some other books. So I'm very happy with my haul. And yeah, I hope you enjoyed the video. It was a really, really great day. I had a lot of fun and yeah, it was really, really great to go to all of these bookstores and the ones of course I didn't buy stuff out were still really great to visit. So yeah, I hope you enjoyed the video. I hope you've all had a wonderful, wonderful Christmas and you're having a brilliant rest of your holiday season, wherever you are. Tell me how it's going down below because like I said before, I know that holidays can be both a brilliant time and a difficult time for people. So let me know how it's going for you and I will see you very soon with another video. Bye.